Letters to the Editor: GOP attacks Susan Rice to help Scott Brown regain Senate seat; Westfield is 'Taxfield'; and more

11.29.2012 | UNITED NATIONS -- U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice speaks after the U.N. General Assembly voted overwhelmingly to recognize a Palestinian state at the United Nations.Associated Press (file)

It becomes increasingly obvious that the unfounded attacks by Senate Republicans to discredit Susan Rice, the United States Ambassador to the United Nations for her statements following the terrorist assassination of Chris Stevens, our Ambassador to Libya, and three other Americans is a blatant, partisan political effort to prevent her appointment as secretary of state in an effort to entice President Obama to appoint Massachusetts Sen. John F. Kerry to that post and thus put in play a process whereby the recently defeated Republican candidate for the Senate, Scott Brown, would once again have an opportunity to run for the Senate in a special election.

The Republican senators who are now seeking to discredit Ambassador Rice for purportedly making misrepresentations concerning the events at Benghazi are among the group of Republican partisans who took us to war over the outright lie that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction. While the flagrant misrepresentations by the Bush administration cost this country thousands of lives of our servicemen and women, there was no Senate outrage or series of hearings to discredit the likes of then Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and the now repentant General Colin Powell for their participation in the deliberate deception of the U.S. Congress, the United Nations and the American people.

It is a travesty to allow the Republican members of the Senate to exploit the tragedy at Benghazi for their own, partisan political purposes to manipulate the recorded defeat of Scott Brown to give him another opportunity to attempt to win a Senate seat that is so vital to the Republican scheme to gain control over the Senate.

It is not surprising to note that Sen. John McCain and others who are leading the slander of Ambassador Rice actively supported and campaigned for the re-election of Scott Brown in a campaign that recorded a clear and decisive victory for now Senator-elect Elizabeth Warren. We can but hope that the Republican ploy will not work ; that the President will show the fortitude to appoint Ambassador Rice if he chooses to do so, and that if Senator Kerry is the President’s choice for Secretary of State or of Defense, that the people of Massachusetts will recognize this sleazy Republican strategy for what it is and once again reaffirm their opposition to the wolf-in-sheep’s-clothing candidacy of the rejected, ex-Senator Scott Brown.

The voters of Massachusetts cannot allow Scott Brown to claim by stealth a Senate seat that he lost in a fair and square election.

One of our Sisters recalls how in 1948 she began work as a new Catholic school teacher. A stipend of $10 per month covered food, and sisters resided in the convent. By the late 1970s stipends rose to about $3,000 per year, still not enough to save for future retirement needs.

The impact of past remuneration is profound today, especially for teaching sisters in the Northeast. For 130 years, more than 1,000 Sisters of St. Joseph of Springfield served in schools in Rhode Island, Vermont, and southeastern, Central and Western Massachusetts. Today our 255 living sisters (median age, 74) are 76 percent unfunded for care of our elders. Literally, today we are only a handful of years away from running out of money – and, our priority is still to remain in active ministry, especially to those whose needs are greatest.

On Dec. 8 and 9 U.S. Catholic parishes will hold its annual collection for retired religious. This collection addresses some current costs of eldercare and provides funds to develop our capacity for helping ourselves further. We are grateful for your past help and we urge your generosity once again for the thousands of religious across the country who share circumstances like our own.

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Westfield should be called “Taxfield.” The city government is not fiscally responsible. They should be trimming the budget and living within this instead of saying “Let’s spend more. Let’s increase the property taxes like we do every year.”

I would not advise anyone to buy property in Westfield – oops – Taxfield due to the continual increase of property taxes by a tax-and-spend city government.